


Outlaws

by thechieftain



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Western, Drama, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 10:44:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12079485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thechieftain/pseuds/thechieftain
Summary: Sasuke struggled against the chains, the thick tar that was his legacy pulling him into the blackness. He looked into her eyes, seeing in them a distance that spanned more miles than there were stars. They were strangers drifting, but he would not let her sink. The debt he owed her was one of blood, made by the devil himself. [Cowboy verse, with SasuSaku as the main couple. NaruHina involved. Eventual Team Seven hijinks and Uchiha family things. Rated M for language, violence, mature themes, and eventual smut]





	1. Death of the Family

 

The women and children were first.

The smell of gunpowder and blood was enough to make even the hardiest of men sick to their stomachs, and the sight enough for them to weep. Guns fired loudly at point blank range, and those left alive to see the bodies of their wives and children go limp would also be deafened by the shots. Still, they did not move, for they too felt the cold steel barrels pressed against the back of their heads. They could not hear the laughter of the executioners— these law abiding men of Konoha that joked over the shame of not being able to use the women before their time. It was a small mercy to only see them fall into the pit they had been forced to dig in silence.

Fugaku, the leader of the clan, was even more fortunate.

He had afforded his children both the time and power they needed to survive, giving them his eyes before his final battle. With the mangekyou sharingan, they at least had a chance to escape the punishment for the coup d'etat he had led. At the same time, it helped him escape the fate of watching his beloved Mikoto, a true beauty among Uchiha, fall dead from his side and into the mass grave. He did no flinch at her death, for she too had fought well to protect the last of the clan. "Are you watching, Itachi? Shisui, Sasuke," he murmured quietly to himself. "Do not be a witness to the death of a failure. I hope you have run far away from this place, for the Uchiha name will be yours to carry. You three should not have been involved...for with our name, you now carry the sigil of an outlaw."

From the distance, they watched him as he raised his head up to the sky. With a second round of fire, he too would fall into the hole. Once the men had been executed, the distant figures of the executioners would drop their weapons and pick up shovels, pilling mounds of dirt over the massive Uchiha grave.

"You have been spared a terrible sight...but it's too late...to save you from the curse of our eyes, Sasuke," Itachi murmured. He looked to his brother, who's eyes had been bandaged by the more experienced Shisui. He messed with these dressings, whimpering of he pain that came with the impromptu operation that had taken place in the midst of the night.

"Your father wanted you to have the Mangekyou Sharingan, Itachi. You could have taken them," Shisui pointed out to his younger cousin. He kept his voice down and his head low, while also pressing down the even younger Sasuke'. Only Itachi was bold enough to peek ahead with his sharingan activated to it's truest potential.

"A foolish endeavor," he replied. "I knew that I would gain those eyes today. Besides, if one of us was unable to see for even half of a day, we would have all died. The only one able to spare their sight for the duration of the recovery was Sasuke."

Shisui scratched the back of his head with his free hand, uncertainty hinted in his tone. "I guess so. Still, who knows what's going to happen now? We're wanted men now."

"For now, we leave this place. There's nothing more to see." With that statement, he slid down beside Shisui and tipped his hat forward,only the blood red glow of the sharingan visible from the shadows that obscured his eyes. "We will wait until the sand is cool and the sky is dark. It's the only safe time for us to travel, when the sheriff's men are too far away to catch us."

This was what they would do. With sharingan activated, the three waited in the shade of a massive boulder, only a few hundred meters away from the half way dug, unmarked grave of the Uchiha. Long hours without food and water passed by until the darkness overcame the sky, and it was then that they would rise from their hiding place, to find that everyone was gone. It was almost as barren and untouched as it had been the previous morning, with the exception of a huge mound of dirt that was still left to be placed into the whole. However, instead of passing it by or simply walking the opposite way, the Uchiha boys would approach it, with Shisui being the only one to slide inside.

The ground beneath him was no firm, but instead lumpy and soft. He knew that he stood on only a few inches of dirt, with the bodies of hundreds beneath that. The stench in the air indicated that the lowermost bodies had already begun to decay.

"What are you doing," Itachi questioned with a slight intensity in his voice. His body was stiff, and his eyes displayed a sense of outrage that was thankfully left unseen by the youngest Uchiha. "These are our friends...our families!"

Shisui tilted his head back up towards Itachi, his expression every bit as serious. "Exactly. This place is the larges collection of sharingan eyes in all of existance. The most powerful kekkei genkai of all...we were the sole group to survive from the feud between ourselves and the Senju. Imagine...a treasure trove of power, left unmarked and unregulated by the Konoha forces. What would happen if one of them might have wanted this type of power for themselves? We Uchiha have a duty to keep our secret out of the hands of others. Now...if your father was a smart man...he might have just taken those secrets with him to the grave." Without further comment, he would kneel down and use his hands to move the dirt aside, only to be faced with the body of Fugaku Uchiha. Pulling off his massive coat and that of two other nearby Uchiha lieutenants, he tossed them up and over edge of the hole.

Itachi did not hesitate to look into his father's overcoat, only to find a massive bundle of papers held together by strings and seals. With his Sharingan, he was able to see the small indents that allowed for one to unseal the dossier using chakra. "I see. So he told you about this."

Shisui would instantaneously body flicker out of the hole and to his cousin's side, his arms folded. "You were working for Danzo. Captain Fugaku didn't fully want to entrust you with all the details of the coup, in case you were to double cross us. He wasn't wrong. After all, it was Danzo's plan to double cross you and kill Sasuke that made you turn your gun back towards Konoha, wasn't it?" When the response gained him no response, Shisui smiled knowingly and leaned in towards his cousin. "You don't have to hide it, Itachi. I know what it's like...wanting to save someone that close to you. That's why I couldn't go against you, no matter what action you chose. I don't think a single Uchiha has it in them to kill their own younger brother."

Finally, the middle Uchiha would relent, shutting his eyes for shut a moment in acknowledgment before opening them wide, allowing for the whole pit to catch alight. Black flames consumed the grave, slowly destroying the bodies of the fallen. They flickered but shared no light. Only the warms from the fire would them to know that it was there. The two elder Uchiha boys stared at this burning hole until the bodies beneath were nothing more than heaps of ash and soot that scattered to the winds. It was then that the flames would die. There was no ceremony for them. No way to confer their bodies to the pure-lands, if that was where they would go. The two only took the youngest by the hand and began to walk away.

Sasuke had scarcely turned eight, and it was clear that the longer they lingered in the desert, the more the sounds would frighten him. He had stayed mostly silent since the operation, but now that they were safe for the moment being, he would once again put his hands on the bandages and tilt his head up into a random direction, unable to discern by which side his brother was. "Itachi, what's going to happen now? What was it that dad was keeping from us?"

While the older brother did not respond, Shisui smiled. For different reasons, the young child was kept in the dark over everything. The coup, the discrimination that they faced, all of it. As a clan, they were supposed to trust each other to the very core. It was evident on the face of the boy that this truth was one he was desperately conflicted with. He desperately wanted to believe that was still true. In a way, it was endearing. If there was ever a favor that Fugaku had done Sasuke, it was to let him be a child for as long as he was.

"Oh, it was nothing special, Sasuke. A few documents. Forged passports, things to make sure you, me and your brother remained safe," Shisui pointed out with an unnaturally cheerful tone. He hoped that he could lift the spirits of the young one— to keep him from sinking into the despair of their situation. Itachi tilted his head to face the other, unable to tell if he was telling the truth or not. It was a talent of his, that much was true. A young man with the talent to make even the bleakest of situations seem as though they had a speck of hope within them.

Sasuke pouted slightly, going back to playing with the bandages. "These things really hurt, Shisui. Can I take them off already?" The answer was met with a large head that would ruffle his hair. He blushed slightly and put his hand over the spot the moment they pulled away. It was Shisui's laugh he ended up hearing, but Itachi's voice.

"Sorry, Sasuke. Maybe in a few days. I promise that when you open your eyes again, it'll be a good sight."

"That's not fair!"

"Sort of how it's not fair I'm the most talented between your brother and I," Shisui chimed in jest. "Trust me though, he's right. Things will be so much better once you have those eyes healed. We might not have your father anymore, but you have his eyes now. It'll be like a piece of him is always with you, and that's a good thing."

The explanation seemed to relax the boy somewhat, but still sulking, he turned his head in the direction of Shisui's voice. "Yeah but that's got nothing to do with the bandages and why I have to wear them." Despite his protests, he moved his hands away from them,instead playing with the hem of his untucked dress shirt. He couldn't understand why they did as they did, nor why they wouldn't let him be more comfortable. The itch that came from beneath the coverings were driving him crazy. Before he was able to raise his hands again however, one hand from either side took his own in theirs'. Itachi squeezed his brother's hand particularly hard— a small comfort for both of them.

Made brave by this, the three walked in the night together— until Sasuke fell asleep. It was at this point that the two Uchihas still awake decided to set up camp.

Once a fire was lit, Sasuke was placed right by it, beside Itachi who stared into the flames. On his other side sat Shisui, who also did the same. The only sound that broke the silence was the crackling of the flames that consumed the small dead branches and plants found to feed it.

"This is such a small fire. Do you think we should use our fire jutsu to make it larger," Shisui suggested whilst using a piece of deadwood to push the other pieces closer to the center of the fire.

Itachi would shake his head. "No...we need to conserve our chakra in case we're ambushed. Not everyone in the world has chakra, but everyone this far away from a town has a gun. Meanwhile, we have none. If we arent completely alert, we'll end up being killed...or worse."

Shisui took a deep breath at this and continued to move the firewood around, his sharingan eyes observing the fire and it's movements carefully. At one moment, it blew to the left, and another, it moved to the right, before a massive gust came and went, nearly putting out the flames. "It looks like there's a dust storm coming. It's a while off, but not far enough that we can get to safety before it's here. We should likely find a cave in which to wait it out."

"I agree. It'll also cover our tracks, meaning that we'll be able to start out without anyone knowing in which direction we went."

"So I guess that's it then? From now on we'll just be hopping from place to place, running with the targets on our backs?"

Itachi scoffed slightly and smiled the slightest bit. "No. All we have to do is find a place willing to take us in. We're not just any outlaws, after all. We're members of the Uchiha. Chakra wielding outlaws to Konoha, but a valuable asset to some other nation, if they're willing to give us refuge."

"You make it sound so easy...but not every country and town is jumping at the opportunity to attack Konoha of all places. We came from there, we know the type of talent they have over your everyday person."

For once, Itachi nodded a this, a sinking feeling overcoming him. The intensity at which he stared at the fire only increased before suddenly watching the flames die with a powerful gust of the wind that swirled around them. The chill overcame the three of them, and very quickly, the brother acted by placing the warmest of the three coats ontop of his younger brother. His eyes slowly shut as he picked him up. "So long as they take Sasuke...that'll be fine."

Shisui watched Itachi for a moment before sighing. "I see. So we'll be heading west, I presume."

"Yes, Suna is the closest major town from where we stand. I assume that Fugaku had planned it this way. Do the Uchiha have secret allies there?"

"We had a...contact. Not affiliated with the government there but something substantial. He's very capable of taking care of Sasuke. An outlaw with similar techniques to our own."

It was a statement that caught Itachi's attention, and with a moment of thought, it seemed to click for him. "So he's been placed on the wanted list too?" As Shisui placed the coat over the shoulders of the one holding the youngest, his sharingan would swirl as it changed into it's ultimate form once again— the mangekyou sharingan.

"Then let's go."


	2. The Institution

 

Sasuke, along with his brother and cousin would grow up in the lands west of the land of Fire— lands known to all as the lawless Wild West. They thrived as mercenaries for hire that rode the wild deserts and canyon fields. They could not reach Sunagakure though. It was a far away place, and the terrain between Konoha and that place was all too difficult to traverse.

And then there were bounty hunters constantly on their heels.

As he traveled with his only living family, the boy turned into a man at the tender age of ten, and became hardened by necessity and the truth. It was awkward to hear these things. The truths of their situation were much too heavy for the young child to bear on his own, and yet that and more things now weighed heavily on his mind. Sasuke was forced to make difficult decisions. In in need to come closer to Suna, he had done things he'd never live down. By right of survival, he had killed. Even with his two closest friends, it was all too painful to realize what had already been a difficult day was the all that more horrifying beginning of this eternal nightmare.

He couldn't get it out of his mind now. What he had heard that day was the execution of his family.

What he smelled was their bodies turning into cinder.

What he saw was only darkness.

And yet, the two older ones tried to push the idea that there could be a normal. They filled his head with hopes of a good life in Suna— that if they could just get there, it would all be over, and they could start again.

Of course, they needed to get there first, and so until they would reach Sunagakure, Sasuke knew there would be no peace.

With the sun on their backs and the wind blowing against their face, they would travel west.

Itachi fiddled with the gun in his hand, opening the barrel and counting the bullets every few moments. It'd reach the point that Shisui slapped his back hard and took the gun away. "You're making everyone a bit nervous by looking at your gun so much," he pointed out to the other. "We got these so we could protect ourselves, so messing with it might make it jam or something."

The middle Uchiha turned towards the eldest and took back the gun. "We just took them off those bounty men yesterday. None of us has ever fired a gun at a live target before. It's worth looking at how it works now, rather than finding out that the gun doesn't work later."

At that moment, Shisui pulled his guns out in a swift motion and fired one round from each into a boulder in the distance. After brief silence, he'd put them away, giving a smile to Itachi. "Seems fine to me."

Sasuke'd look to the gun on his own holster and back towards the two older men. "Are you sure that we're ready for something like this?"

"Being ready has nothing to do with it. Opportunity rears it head at any time, and you either take it, or you don't. The consequences of what happens after falls on you. If you're resourceful enough, you can make any situation fall in your favor."

They continued to walk onwards, the three in silence— slowly entering a massive canyon. The shade felt good on Sasuke's skin after the son mercilessly beat down on him. However, he felt strangely trapped with a massive wall of a cliff on either side of him. It stretched as far as the eye could see— which to him, was the same as forever.

"See the river in the middle of the canyon path? That's where the water flows from one of Suna's surrounding towns. All the water that Sunagakure drinks comes from that lakeside place. Stretches about fifty miles from start to finish and ends at the lake we saw yesterday. So if we hike it for a few more days, we might actually get to civilization."

Sasuke's body shook with mild anticipation at this, and with some sense of determination, he'd begin to run, only for the other two Uchiha to follow closely behind.

"You don't have to run, Sasuke! It'll take a few days either way," Itachi called to him.

"It's faster this way," he yelled back as he looked towards his brother.

Itachi frowned. "Watch your step!"

"Huh?" Without even having a chance to look down, Sasuke's foot was caught, causing the boy to lose his balance. With a yelp, he fell over, face first into the ground. It took a moment for him to even register that he was on the ground, but once he did, he realized just how much it hurt and groaned. After shaking the shock away, Sasuke slowly got up on his feet again and looked behind him, only to see the strewn body of a man. He was older, with Bullet holes covered his back, but the blood had dried on the ground long ago.

Itachi and Shisui approached slowly the former dropping his bag while the latter would do the same with his over coat. Once close enough, they watched the body momentarily before the younger of the two pulled down the collar of his shirt. On the nape of his neck was the Uchiha crest, and beneath it was the name of Fugaku's Uchiha.

"A slave," Itachi stated with mild disgust. "Must have been killed once they found out that he was Uchiha property. It's likely there'll be more bodies up ahead."

Sasuke had not heard that word much before things started to get volatile. He knew they existed, but suddenly, not long before the Uchiha were killed, they became a massive problem. "Is it that big of a deal?"

The eldest Uchiha folded his arms. "It's a damnable institution that thrives on the labor of people weaker than us. Non-chakra users that worship the grandchildren of the 'Rabbit Goddess' as she's called." There was a thick undertone of disgust in his voice. The Uchiha did not believe in Gods. Neither did anyone that was lucky enough to have been born in a clan with the ability to use chakra. They knew the truth...that the Mother of all Chakra had merely eaten fruit from a now extinct tree. It was that which gave her that power which fueled jutsu, and she passed it on to all her successors. "Indra and Asura...the creators of the Uchiha and Senju clans respectively. They were men, just like you or I. It's their power and legendary feats however, that made them feared as Gods of this world. Our clans took advantage of that blind belief, and enslaved those that would have followed us, partitioned by the Gods their families believed in. We took the Indra believers...and they took the Asura ones."

Itachi would continue the explanation. "From there, it only grew. Other clans began to grow jealous, and enslaved families of non-chakra users as well. Men, women, and children now became part of an institution they wanted no part of, despite their disbelief. Their children were reeducated and forced to work, and the wheels of time would turn. Now all slaves hold belief of Gods, and all slaves are those that have no ability to use chakra. The only hope that they have to become free, is to somehow...through a miracle, be born and demonstrate that talent which the clans hold. The use of ninjutsu." The man would scoff at this, and slowly shook his head in disappointment. "An impossibility."

"You used to have a slave though, Itachi."

At this, the middle Uchiha would nod. He could not forget that so easily. His eyelids became half lidded as he recalled the young boy that was his servant. "Yes, Naruto. A gift from the Senju clan during one of our truces. He was the blond boy. If we're technical, he was father's...but since he was such a handful, he gave him to me, and I allowed you to play with him, Sasuke."

The youngest Uchiha nodded at this, agreeing with all of the details as he too recalled the slave. He didn't truly know what that word had been until the first time he'd seen his father beat the young boy. They had been playing near the river, and Sasuke had fallen in. The two of them were six, and yet despite that, the patriarch did not spare him the rod.

Somehow, they did not break him. Lacerations covered his body, for scars never formed. Instead the cuts from Fugaku's weapon always disappeared. Out of frustration, the man consistently had him whipped, frustrated that Naruto's body never became permanently marked. Still, the boy always healed quickly and never learned. What hurt in the moment was later forgotten, and just as though it were the first time, he always found a way to get into trouble— one way or another.

He was a strange one, that Naruto. His eyes glimmered in blue like the lake in an oasis. His expression was always wild and always unkempt, with a magnetic smile that was unparalleled. His love was for adventure and the great unknown, and that inspired the young Uchiha to want the same. They aspired for greatly impossible things, like traveling the uncharted west, and freedom. Strange whisker marks graced his face which gave him a foxlike expression— especially when he gave those goofy grins of his. While at the time, Sasuke thought it was funny, he could never figure out whether or not they were tattoos of some sort. Whenever he'd ask, Naruto'd become nervous and always changed the subject, and they'd start on about something else.

Back in those days, he could truly call the boy his best friend.

Of course, Sasuke also remembered what happened to him.

"You sent him away with the rest of the slaves...you basically set him free...all of them actually. That was after the riots started right? When father decided to join the—."

Itachi nodded. "That's right. All Uchiha property was to be destroyed after the riots...which meant that they would have been put down in the same way we were. And while I don't regret what I did, I regret taking so long to do it. I barely afforded them a chance to escape." A sigh escaped his lips as the wind begun to pick up. Itachi stepped away from the shore of the river and sat on it's bank, looking at the water. "Despite my ideals, I continued to work for Konoha, against the Uchiha...it was a foolish choice to not stand with my beliefs from the beginning. I was too afraid of the instability. Our clan paid the price for my disloyalty."

Shisui shook his head and placed a hand on the other's shoulder. "No, that's not right. You thought you were doing the right thing. I would have too, if I was in your position."

Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows. "I remember...I was supposed to get a slave too, right? For my tenth birthday?"

The two older men looked to the youngest. Shisui shut his eyes, as if to think before tilting his head up towards the sky. It was upon feeling the sun on his face that he remembered. "Ah! Yes, the girl. I was in charge of that..." He sighed and tipped his hat down to cover his eyes. "She was supposed to teach you how to read... Miss S. I don't quite remember her name, but she was no older than you. I remember there was some special circumstance about her that gave her the right to get an education from the Konoha Medical Academy. She was there since the day she was born. However, that would have ended when you turned ten, and she would have been yours. Would have been our family doctor as well. Yes, I think that's it. Would have been useful, I must admit. I remember going down to the Academy and warning her. It was the first time any one of us had actually met her in person...and the last. Dunno what she did after that. Maybe she left, or maybe she stayed and got herself killed, thinking she wouldn't be targeted. I said to her, 'it's the most important choice you'll ever make. Maybe the only choice you'll ever make.' She looked at me with these sharp, steady eyes, and said to me, 'Master, I've been in here learning my whole life, and making choices all the while, knowing one day that the chains would take that away from me. Frankly, this is wonderful news. No matter what I choose now, whether to stay or not, I'll die free.' Strangely, I've never been so impressed really. Apparently, by that point, she was already so advanced that she was teaching classes. There was something peculiar about that girl." The rest of the explanation seemed mumbled out. "I thought I saw something with my sharingan...but that seemed like a trick of the eye. Almost as though she had—."

Sasuke lowered his head. "Shisui, are you against the institution like Itachi? The way you talk about it...is it really as bad as everyone was talking about?"

The question, though surprising, didn't faze him. "The situation is a little more nuanced. There is nothing more vile than the institution. I hate it and everything it stands for, but we've had it since nearly the very beginning. Our society is so entrenched in the institution's existence that to remove it, you'd need to despite society as a whole. You'd need to break the wheel and make another from scratch. That's what the Uchiha tried to do, and look at what happened. In the end, we suffered the same fate as the Senju."

There was a silence filled with thoughts that hung over the three. Sasuke attempted to disseminate the words in order to find hidden meanings where there were only truths— not pure or simple ones, but they rarely ever were. Strangely, those words she had spoken to the older resonated with him. She was clever, he liked that. But was it truly so bad though? Perhaps to her, the day in which she'd come under his care would have been equal to a death sentence. But why? "Shisui—." Sasuke started and suddenly stopped, looking up with his mangekyou sharingan activated.

Shisui and Itachi would follow.

They all felt the same strange air, and soon heard the same distant rumbling. At first, they could not tell what it was, but as soon as the shadows became apparent over the horizon, they realized that the law had caught up to them.

"Move," Itachi urged, picking up his bag and grabbing Sasuke's wrist. Shisui made sure that his guns were in their holsters before grabbing his overcoat from the ground. The three bolted, and begun to make their way upstream. It was the only way they could go on the canyon path— with two massive cliffsides limiting the means by which they could escape.

However, no matter how quickly the three of them would run, they were no match for the horses. While they sprinted, the lawmen galloped, hollered and shot right at them.

The three kept their heads low as they ran, letting their arms dangle behind them whilst they picked up speed. Shisui, despite being the fastest, remained at the back, prepared to shoot back the moment they came too close. "Do you think we could run up the walls of the canyon?"

"No," Itachi replied, reaching for his own gun. "Running up would make us easier targets than running away. They'd get us unless we somehow managed to get five miles up in ten seconds." Taking one look back, he suddenly tensed up— not having realized just how close the men were getting to them.

"Then I guess we have no choice, do we?"

"Not anymore."

The three of them stopped suddenly, causing Sasuke's heart to sink. Were they going to make a stand in the canyon?! There wasn't enough space for them to fight openly. Just by looking, Sasuke realized that it was going to be a bloodbath.

Itachi looked towards a crevice and begun to push Sasuke towards it. "Get inside, and don't come out until it's all over. Do you understand me?"

Sasuke looked back up towards his holder brother. "But Itachi I can fight— I—."

"Last time, they came with ten men. This time, they came with twenty. If you fight, you'll die."

With no further comment, the boy would crawl into the hole and press himself against it's furthest point, allowing his sharingan to deactivate. To Itachi, this meant Sasuke was no longer visible, which gave him relief. "Don't move...don't help...no matter what happens."

Shisui turned towards Itachi and narrowed his eyes. "Do you seriously want to do this?"

Itachi nodded. "It's the only way," he whispered to the other. "If we fight, Sasuke might get hurt...or worse, caught."

"I guess this sort of thing can't be helped."

The two cousins stood out in the open, and slowly put up their arms. At this, Sasuke's eyes widened. What the hell were they doing? They were going to get caught!

It was not long until Sasuke could only see the horses circling around the Uchiha men, their riders yelling, hooting, and hollering even louder than before.

"Hey, we caught 'em! Good job men!"

"Where's the boy though?"

"Bah, forget the boy, we've got the ones the Danzo wants. Besides, he'll likely die out here anyways!"

Sasuke couldn't bear to watch this happen and shut his eyes. It couldn't he happening...after so much work...after being two years on the run, it all ended here. Itachi and Shisui simply gave themselves up. But why?! Why the hell would they do something like this?! Who was to say that they wouldn't be shot the moment that they reached Konoha?! He couldn't look at them...not without feeling despair and shame in his heart.

And yet, Sasuke turned back one last time to see his brother looking back at him. Even then, captured and helpless, he still gave the young boy a look of assurance. It was a strength not even his father had— the ability to smile even in the bleakest of moments. It made him tear up, and as his brother and cousin disappeared over the horizon, tears would spill silently. His body felt as though it were sinking, lungs crushed by the pressure at the bottom of the ocean. He drowned with each exhale, before filling himself with enough air to burst. It was slow, and silent, the daze he felt. His death and revival were instantaneous, and yet he knew he was now in Hell. Still, he followed the instructions given to him. He didn't leave until it was over.

Sasuke stayed in that small opening.

Nightfall came.

And then, he ran.


	3. Blood Debt

 

It was not hours.

It was not days.

Sasuke traveled weeks in the western deserts alone.

To him, all of it ought to have ended as soon as he was he left the crevice in the canyon. Instead, however, he ran. He ran and ran and did not stop for what seemed like eons, with the sun beating down his face and his hat hanging on the string around his neck. For the first time in his life, he had felt what fear was like. True fear. The sort of fear that made him look back every time he fell on his knees when they gave out. His heart practically beat out of his chest as muscles pulsed in agony. They could have been a mile off, a thousand feet away, maybe even behind him at that very moment. No, he had to get away. Sasuke didn't think when he ran from trouble. His body simply did it, purely out of instinct. He struggled up to his feet, his very bones aching as though they were being sliced with the hottest knife— slowly and deliberately— before stumbling into another run.

"I'm a coward..." He shuddered those words with no fear or pain, simply shame.

He collapsed on the floor, mouth dry and lungs hurting. The air was acrid, thick with the gust which carried the sands south. The specks flew against his face, constant and unyielding, barraging his senses in such a way that his already disoriented body could no longer tell where he even was. He could no longer see, no longer hear anything but the howl of the wind and the sand against his ears. Sasuke struggled to get up.

His throat hurt, scratchy and coarse like the sand beneath his feet. The boy's lips were cracked and bleeding, to where he could taste the blood as he gurgled in pain. Coughing was beyond an ordeal— one of the most painful things he'd ever experienced, to the point where he would rather hold in the urge. The sensation built until his throat pinched and strained and he would be forced to cough twice as hard.

Pain radiated from every muscle as he collapsed once again, unable to physically stand anymore.

His stomach hurt.

His body hurt.

His head hurt.

His heart...

"Itachi, Shisui...I'm sorry…" Tears welled up in his eyes. The Uchiha was surprised he could muster the energy for it— especially when he had not found water for at least a week. Still, he was able to, albeit briefly before dirt and sand would stick to the wetness that then flowed down his cheeks.

He was going to die. Sasuke knew this was it. This was where it was all going to end. This was where it was all going to end— in the middle of the desert, buried alone in the sandstorm.

There was nothing he could do.

They had failed; it was all for nothing. How pathetic, Sasuke thought to himself, the last Uchiha dying in the desert without anything to show for it. They ran for years and in the end, for what?

His vision was the last thing to go. What he saw in front of him was blurry from the sandstorm, but he'd soon see the distant dunes melting into the distant canyon, like water down the waterfall. The sky seemed to fall rapidly, pressing against his weakened body. There was something surprisingly surreal about knowing everything around you was a lie. To know that his eyes, which had become a source of pride could no longer discern truth from illusion. His body betrayed his senses, and his senses betrayed logic. Thirst felt like cold, and the sweat that would trickle down in beads felt like knives that sliced his face open. It hurt terribly, and yet he did not bleed. He felt cold, yet did not shiver. His lungs could not catch enough air as he suffocated. He forced himself to recall brother's face, trying his best to remember and focus on it. The pain and hunger distorted his mind, and so he could not recall the details. It was like a photo out of focus— blurred and grainy. Squinting would not clear his view, but instead only washed out the image in his mind. There were no longer features, no longer a face to match the voice in his mind that told him it would all be okay.

How long had it been? Did he even have a brother? Why was he still alive when so many others had died?

At least it was all over. He wanted death to come and take him already.

Sasuke closed his eyes, resigned to his fate, and for a brief moment, he felt nothing. That brief instance of sweet oblivion was bliss.

Slowly, he awakened, senses slowly returning to him. His skin was warm and his face cool against a thick, soft, loamy dirt. He didn't feel dead but supposed he may have been.

That's when he heard a girl singing.

_"The Devil's gonna make me a free man, the Devil's gonna set me free. Ooh, the Devil's gonna make me a free man, the Devil's gonna set me free..."_

Sasuke heard the voice, and perhaps because he realized he was still alive, the melodious crooning tugged at him. Never so striking was there a song in his life. It was soft and melodious, yet resolute. Her voice exuded a cool confidence that caught him by surprise, yet seemed particularly familiar- not in tone, but in accent.

When his eyes opened, he saw a girl he had never seen before. Eyes like emeralds glimmered against the flecks of cinder that spewed forth from a roaring flame beside him. Her hair was a light pink; an unusual color for a person to have. Without reconciling her identity with his suspicions forthwith, she looked to Sasuke- eyes sharp and steady- in such a way that he had never seen. It was boldness with which she looked to him, and he to her with dazed curiosity.

"I took your gun already," she stated. "Don't bother asking, I'm not giving it back, and there's no way in hell you'd be able to get it off of me."

For a girl, she was far too confrontational, Sasuke thought. Despite that, he did not let her cutting words get to him. He knew better than to allow a stranger to see twinging nerves. "I wasn't going to attack you."

"In your condition? Very unlikely, sir." The title was given with a thick layer of disgust. He wondered what her deal was but before he could ask, she stood up and approached him, a canteen clasped tightly in her hands. "Here, drink." The girl tilted the flask forward, hanging it just a few inches away from Sasuke's mouth.

The boy immediately leaned forward, pressing it against his lips before tilting it back. The cool liquid washed over his dry tongue and alleviated his throat almost instantly. He grabbed the canteen almost desperately with both his hands, forcing her to tilt it even more. As he swallowed thirstily, the water would rush so fast that it dribbled down the sides of his mouth. His breathing matched these swallows, taking massive breaths between even larger gulps.

And that quickly, it was all gone.

Sasuke ran his tongue against the tip and dipped it into the hole of the container, hoping to get a few more drops — and while he managed to do so, it was not without completely embarrassing himself in the process. The desperation was apparent, though he only became conscious of it once he had quenched his immediate need.

The girl was surprised by the reaction of this guy. "How long had you been struggling in the desert," she asked with a tinge of concern. She then sighed and pressed her hand against her head, shaking it slightly. "You're lucky I found you when I did. It took me a good minute to dig your body out of the sand. Your face and feet were the only things sticking out."

The Uchiha frowned slightly. "Yeah...I would have probably died out there, had it not been for you."

"That's why you owe me a blood debt."

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at the suggestion. "A blood debt?"

A light scoff escaped her lips as she crouched down to Sasuke's level. She met his suddenly intense eyes with a sense of collected composure. "You're an Uchiha from Konoha. You know what a blood debt is. If I save your life, you owe me."

"I have nothing that I can pay you with."

"You have this." She allowed Sasuke to see his gun peeking out of her back holster before placing it properly inside. "Well, had. I'll just take it to protect myself. You don't need it, considering you likely have the sharingan."

"What the hell do you know about me?"

"Nothing, other than you being an Uchiha. Your look is unmistakable. The crest on your coat is too. Oh, and that's another thing. Unless it's night time, you're probably better off not wearing a coat. Especially not in the sort of heat we get here. That might work back in the Land of Fire, where the weather is temperate nearly all year round, but here in the Land of Wind, in the West, you're only cooking yourself alive by wearing clothes like that. The weather is harsh and unforgiving. Frigid nights and blistering hot days. Of course, you should know this...considering you got this far."

Sasuke knit his eyebrows together as he sat up, feeling his distaste for the girl growing by the moment. Still, he knew better than to completely push her away— she had saved him, and if she left, he'd likely still die out in the desert. Still, he refused the idea of owing anyone a blood debt. "Anyone else could have done what you did..."

"Anyone else could have left you there. I hoisted you onto my horse and took you out of the storm."

There was a moment of silence. Sasuke squeezed his teeth together hard, tightening his jaw before pinching the bridge of his nose. "You can't just keep my gun," he insisted. "I need it! I have to get to Sunagakure in one piece!"

The girl would pull the gun out once more, fiddling with it in her hands, inspecting it for something that Sasuke didn't quite get just yet. However, before he could say anything at all to her, she pointed at him, causing him to jolt back slightly, before she'd then point it off to the side, towards a boulder. She shot it out in that direction, but entirely missed the rock.

"That was a clear shot..."

The girl huffed and shook her head before extending his weapon out to him. The barrel was facing towards him downward. "Yeah, fine, you can have your gun back. I don't like how it feels in my hand anyway."

"Take your finger off the trigger."

"Oh, right, sorry."

When removing all the mystery and smart talk, the impression he had of the girl was that she was rather odd. Definitely clumsy, somewhat impatient, with something telling him that she was trying to impress him somehow. Of course, he couldn't really tell why if it was true. Was she trying to seem tough? Did she like him? Did she hate him? Despite being somewhat of an awkward girl, he couldn't really tell her motivations or why she was acting the way she did.

He slowly reached for the gun and took it back before putting it in his holster. As she leaned forward in handing it, he saw two more guns hanging off two more holsters. "You wanted my gun, but you already had two more," he noted.

"Someone can never have too many guns."

"It isn't awkward to carry them all?"

"No, but to be fair, I get a lot of use out of them."

"And do you actually hit anything when you shoot?"

She glared at him, narrowing her eyes. "I can shoot you."

Sasuke scoffed at this. "Well, now I have a gun too, and I never miss."

This comment caught Sakura by surprise. A boy his age having a marksman ability? How? "You've never missed a shot in your life? Not even once?"

"My sharingan is one got from my father. One of its less than unique abilities among clan members allows me to have such a keenly detailed sight that I can even predict where you'll be moving. I've never missed a shot." Looking towards the gun in its place, Sasuke would pat it gently. "I've only killed twice, and both times, it was with this and my eyes."

"They've had to have been clean ones," she pointed out. "If you were doing the same thing on horseback, or while running, or even if your opponent was behind some object, you'd start to miss a hell of a lot more often."

Sasuke shrugged. "Maybe, but that's never happened."

The answer got a laugh out of her, surprisingly genuine of an expression from someone who had spent the last twenty minutes berating him. "Well, it probably will happen more often. Considering how little you know, I don't think there's a way for you to survive out here by yourself," she decided aloud. Giving an over dramatic sigh, she then put up her hands. "I guess it can't be helped. You're pretty lucky that I live in Suna. You'll just have to come with me to town. I have a friend to pick up before we go back there."

A small sense of relief washed over the Uchiha. He was no longer lost— or at the very least, he didn't have to go it alone. "Really?" Despite the fact that this was good news, however, he couldn't help but feel that there was no such thing as a free lunch. He was without Shisui or Itachi, and so even if this girl was around the same age as him, she was no less of a stranger or danger to him. "Wait, why are you helping me?"

The girl stood up at that moment, taking the canteen with her. Walking over to her horse, she opened up a massive sack that hung off the saddle and placed it inside before pulling out another canteen. She shook it slightly, and Sasuke could hear the delicious water sloshing inside. His eyes widened slightly as he felt the dryness in his throat creeping up. She turned towards Sasuke, noticing his glance at her, and smiled to herself— almost in satisfaction— as she approached him again, popping the top off. "I'd feel bad if you died out here when I could have helped. I guess it's just one of those things. As a medic, I feel I have a responsibility to save anyone I can." She'd take a long swig of the water before handing the canteen over to him.

With a nod, Sasuke would thank her before chugging at the water. He didn't actually finish it off this time before handing over the container. "So you're a medic?"

"Yeah," she replied with a bit of a smile. Nostalgia gleamed in her eyes momentarily. "I was trained in the East, but I decided to try my luck out here. There's a real bad need for healers out here in the West. No medic schools, not a lot of doctors and even fewer medics with chakra like myself. I work with a guy in Suna named Kakashi."

Somehow the story seemed familiar though Sasuke could not tell how. However, be brushed the feeling aside in lieu of something that caught his immediate attention. "Kakashi?" Sasuke parroted with eyes widening.

Sakura nodded. "They call him the Marshall...he's got a bit of a reputation for being the sort of guy that does a lot of good, no matter what the law says. Really good moral compass on him. Willing to help out anyone depending on whether it's right or not."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. He actually leads this group of lawbreakers that does just that. We're called the Seven-Hell Gunslingers."

Sasuke remained silent for a moment, listening to her, the gentle breeze and the crackling of the fire all the while. His body trembled with relief and excitement. He was close— finally close— to what the three Uchihas had sacrificed so much to reach. The girl with him now was his only way to get it, and so, Sasuke knew what to do next.

"You have to take me with you there...to Kakashi Hatake."

"Huh?"

The boy looked towards her with resolve in his eyes— intense and determined— all while feeling the trembling in his body become more fervent. It was difficult to contain what he felt inside of him.

"I've come far...very far to find him...he's the only one that can help me."

"Help you what?"

Sasuke glanced at the ground momentarily, clenching his fists tightly to the point that his fingers would ache in his grip. "He made a promise...to us. Gave us his word. He has to help."

Something about his words didn't sit right with Sakura. Indeed, it was very visible that she was more than reluctant about all that he had said, and his lack of specifics. Her own eyes, which seemed steely and cautious carried semblances of a doubt. She battled the choices in her mind, every once in awhile looking back to him as if to make sure that he wasn't pulling one over her. "The Marshal's a man of his word," she mused with tension.

"Then you have to help me." Sasuke paused briefly, searching for something seemingly before switching gears in the same tone. "What's your name?"

"Sakura Haruno. You?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

There was a strange shift in the air right as the name was uttered. The wind picked up, slowly at first, but soon grew strong enough that Sakura's hair was waving and flowing in it. Sakura seemed startled and moved back the slightest bit after a strangely long pause. Something in her eyes had changed, and so when she glanced back up at him, unsettled, it took her a moment to reply back. "Sasuke Uchiha," she repeated with slight tension. In a blink, her eyes were now downcast, seemingly searching the earth with a thousand yard stare.

"Is something wrong?"

The wind was stronger now. Sakura touched the back of her neck, brushing over slowly as she kept her eyes fixated on him. She then stretched out her neck as though she was trying to relax a tensed muscle. The movement was awkward and strangely unfitting. She didn't seem to indicate that she was strained in any way before. "No, I..."

A crackling metallic echo cut through their silence and brought their attention to the east.

Before either of them could say anything, a bright red light— thin but visible shot up to the sky, which soon enveloped both their visions. There was blinding light, followed by a massive bang that rumbled the very ground beneath their feet. Unbalance between the two of them made it easier for the powerful gust that followed to knock them onto their backs, forcing them to slide until they hit a boulder. Both of them crashed with a thud and winced in pain, all the while still being pushed by the winds.

The horse, though tied up would begin to run in a panic, trying to escape to no avail and neighed loudly in fear. He would buck upwards on his two hind legs and forward on his front ones, not at all seeming to calm down at all, even as all their vision began to return.

The wind was still strong, but no longer was it enough to knock them over, and so after regaining a sense of balance, they attempted to get up.

Sasuke's vision came back first as the eternal mangekyou sharingan activated the moment that he was pushed downwards. Despite that, it took him a moment to focus his sight.

Red— that was the first thing he saw.

Everything around him reflected a diminishing red light. Stillness sounded like a distant howl of wind now, and the gust became only a breeze, yet it was still strong enough that hair waved backward, against the winds. Somehow, to his senses, the wind's sound against his ears translated to his eyes as a fuzzier picture— at least for a few seconds. The moment that he was able to see clearly, his eyes caught sight of something in the sky, and he looked up. His breath hitched at the scene above him.

The moon gave off a powerful, scarlet light, with fading blackness in its craters and bright light that faded in a gradient from yellow to orange inward from its edges. The light it emitted was more powerful than it was normally but still tinted the surface with its new color. The more noticeable thing, however, was that it was big— very, very big in the sky. If he held out the canteen he had been drinking from outstretched in front of him, it would still not be enough to cover the moon in the sky. Sasuke could feel a lurch in his stomach at the sight of something which was so normally distant being as close as it was now.

As Sasuke stared up at the sky unblinkingly, Sakura would slowly approach and stand beside him, also entranced by the moon. It was horrifying yet mesmerizing, filling their bodies with both curiosity and dread. The winds did not cease and instead circled around, forcing sand and dust to rise high above them. Something didn't feel right. What the hell could have caused this? Why was it happening? Why in the East?

"We should head into town and see what's going on. Maybe someone has a clue about what just happened."

Sasuke nodded before going to the still startled horse, beginning to unravel the bind that kept it tethered to the post. "So you'll be riding us into town?"

Sakura took a moment to consider the situation. She paused, looking between the horse, the boy, and the moon. Something on her face indicated distress, but Sasuke couldn't place it. "No choice now," she concluded. "If we ride immediately, we'll get there at dawn break. At least this way I can also fill up on water and get everything else done as well. This info is the top priority."

With that being said, Sasuke would nod and begin to set up and prepare. Sakura too would do the same, making sure that everything was packed before being the first to get on the horse. When she felt his hands sliding around her waist, however, she grabbed both and tore them off of her. "Don't touch me," she warned gravely.

"How am I supposed to make sure I don't fall off?"

Sakura'd shrug at the question. "Hold onto the saddle, but don't hold onto me."

With the first rearing, Sasuke fell right off— an omen of what would be his night.

In the end, the request became impossible to fulfill. Sakura had her horse going at top speed back to town, and with every bump and sharp turn that they had to go, Sasuke would fall off, over and over again. His arms, legs, and hips became bruised from each tumble. When one of those falls resulted in a fracture, Sakura would finally relent (after healing him). For the rest of their ride, he held onto her tightly, with his legs pressed against the sides of the horse. Neither of them spoke to each other the whole way, silently enduring each other's company until the morning light. It was when they reached the outskirts that Sakura finally spoke up.

"There it is, Breakspring Respite. It's one of those towns that popped up pretty recently."

Sasuke nodded as though agreeing with her. However, despite the town's newness, it looked no better than a shanty town cobbled together hastily at the last moment, or even an abandoned civilization that was just rediscovered. Wooden boards and debris littered the floor as the average citizen was out and about, inspecting the damage and picking up what they could from the ground. Was she sure that this was the right place? Recalling yesterday, however, it dawned on Sasuke that the event must have hit the town particularly hard.

The two of them walked into town, with Sakura leading the horse by its reigns. Since it was morning, the warmth of the day made the weather particularly pleasant. It was enough to put Sakura in a better mood— or at least it had to be. Something had changed, and though Sasuke couldn't place it, he had to guess it was this. The moon, massive and red was still in the sky, looming over them all ominously. It was clear that it was moving, however, as it was slowly crawling across the sky to hide beneath the horizon. The lunar-set had people staring— and talking to one another, wondering about what was happening and why it was going on.

No one had any semblance of a clue.

"How recently is recently?" Sasuke finally asked this as he would hop off the horse, prompting Sakura to do the same.

"Very. About a year ago, actually. There was a legendary battle between members of an outlaw group called the 'Akatsuki'. Kisame Hoshigaki went up against Deidara of Iwagakure. The result of their battle was a massive crater a hundred feet deep that was filled up to the top with water." The girl then pointed to a massive lake through one of the alleys between a bank and a tavern. It was a deep blue and glimmered quite clearly despite their distance from it. "Not long after, people began setting up here. And now that the rainy season is coming, people are talking about building a river to connect to the Great Sand River. You know, the one that goes into the Deathpoint Canyon?"

"I wouldn't know," Sasuke replied. "I'm not particularly familiar with the area...if my near death didn't indicate that."

Sakura looked towards the sky, the moon lower in the sky as the sun begun to rise. People's talk of the moon was very apparent, and the general feeling of the town was more solemn than normal. A few people ahead of them spoke of three lawmen that died in the blast. "Skewered by loose stakes," one of them said. "Damn shame too...their wives are gonna be awfully sore about this whole mess. It would have been Kenji's birthday today too, huh?"

"I think that was yesterday," another one pointed out, scratching at his long beard. "You always did have the memory of a damn goldfish."

The two children passed them quietly, only to stop in front of a tavern. The outside seemed mildly shaken by the blast, with missing boards for the wall. With each step, the floorboards creaked with a defeated agony, weak enough to almost give out under them. The sign seemed to have been ripped out of the roof if the indents were any indication, and in its place was only a single sheet of paper that now stood upon the door. It was scribbled quickly over a rough surface, giving the impression that the person who wrote it must have had some sort of degenerative muscle illness affecting their ability to write.

**THE FAR MOON BAR IS STILL OPEN. 9 MORN TO 10 EVE.**

These were nonsense scribblings to him. Sakura read it aloud the moment she saw him squinting however in a pathetic attempt to feign comprehension, which prompted him to immediately push forward. "Are we going to eat here?"

"No, I'm going to go find my friend, and you're going to Suna." Sakura took the horse to the largest post that held up the wooden building and began to tie the animal to it, making sure it had enough space to move its head up and down far enough to reach the container of water beneath it. Her movements seemed very forceful, and the expression on her face seemed to tense up, as though she was taking out some frustration as she tied the knot. "It's ten miles to the North of here, as the crow flies. So you don't need to bother with any twists and turns. If you can't go by foot, take a horse. There's a lot of those here."

Sasuke paused at this explanation. "Wait, you're leaving? You said you would be able to take me to—."

"Look, I didn't promise you anything. I took you this far because at least here, I know that if you die, it won't be for my negligence. The Uchiha name is known even this far out, and the last thing I want is to associate with you or your kind."

Those words hit the boy like a brick to the back of the head, leaving him stunned. He stared out for a moment, seemingly thunderstruck before immediately coming back to his senses. "Sakura—."

"No. There's nothing that can change my mind about something like this." She turned around as she said this, folding her arms as if to close herself off from him.

This only made him approach her further until his hand was on her shoulder. "I will give you something more valuable than my gun."

 _What a preposterous claim,_  she thought to herself. "What's more valuable than your weapon?"

"The man that holds the weapon," Sasuke said, firmly and without hesitation. "You're a medic...and clearly a terrible shot. Even with chakra, only a handful of people ever learn more than just five jutsu. It takes too much time and effort to harness such a finite source to become more useful. Being a medic likely leaves you few choices in terms of defending yourself, so I offer you my protection. I'll lay down my life if I have to after I get to Suna— it doesn't matter what happens to me next...just so long as I get to Kakashi Hatake."

Sakura stared at the boy, and he did to her, tense glances as each of them eyed the other carefully. The wind would blow fiercely at that moment, but neither would move. Suddenly, there was a strange change in her eyes, and she would falter, breaking eye contact to look away and towards the floorboards. "A blood debt," she whispered contemplatively. "You're selling your freedom so that you can get to Kakashi? He's an outlaw though...his reputation is no better than that of your clan's. Why the heck would you want to meet with him?"

Sasuke looked down to the floor at that moment. Thousands of thoughts whirled through his mind, but through them all, he could see the face of the only family that cared about him: his brother Itachi and his cousin Shisui. They were the only two that ever really gave a damn about him in the world, and they gave their freedom and possibly their lives for Sasuke to get as far as he did. He had to get them back, that much he knew, but he couldn't do it alone. "I was told that he could help me...that I would be safe with him...and that arrangements were already made. Promises held together by blood and honor. I intend to make sure that they are not broken. Not to mention, that that man can help me gain something more important than my life."

Furrowing her eyebrows, Sakura's eyes flicked to the gun in Sasuke's holster. He was willing to become a weapon over this and lay down his life and freedom over it. Was there something worth gaining that had greater value than his right to self-determination? That there was, made something turn inside the girl, and the feeling sickened her. Pity overtook her thoughts as she glanced back up to look him in the eye. "You're making a mistake."

"No, it's a deal with the devil, and I intend to pay it back in full."

"Then it's done," she folded her arms. "You owe me a blood debt."


End file.
